Cope Bros. Tobacco Works - Liverpool, England (image heavy)

[misterlowercase]

I think it's important to know the ghosts from pipesmoking past.
There's a good bit of info out there regarding the old British pipes, but not really too much about the old UK tobacco houses.
I'm gonna try to do a small series relating to them, with as much hard info as I can muster, but moreso a pictorial survey, because the images of the artifacts tell a grand story too.
First up is Cope from Liverpool, made immortal by formulating the long-lasting and beloved Escudo.
Cope Bros & Co was a company based in Liverpool that manufactured tobacco products from 1848 until 1952.
The company was taken over by Gallaher in 1952.
The Wiki page has some pretty good info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cope_Bros_%26_Co
Paul McCartney’s family was a part of it: his grandfather spent his whole working life as a tobacco cutter and stover at Cope's tobacco warehouse.
Here's another great summary, along with some fine pix of factory workers at work:

http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com/2013/02/CopesTobaccoWorks.html
Cope was one of the earliest adopters of advertising tobacco in Great Britain, although they did it in an unorthodox manner, by publishing printed matter in the form of booklets and magazine-like gazettes.
Cope’s Tobacco Plant, published 1870-1881, was a fabulously tobacconalian literary project, printing a wide range of diverse material, as well as lampooning the rampant Anti-tobbaconalians of the time.

A notice to readers in the first number of this monthly journal published in March 1870, declared that, ‘the “Tobacco Plant” does not deal with the ordinary news topics of the day except where and so far as they immediately concern the Tobacco Trade. Its motto is “Tobacco; all about Tobacco, and nothing but Tobacco;” and to this programme it will adhere’. As the Tobacco Plant was aimed at ‘the smoker as well as the trader’ ‘lighter contributions’ including stories, verse, and anecdotes were added to amuse the consumer during ‘those hours of ease in which he enjoys his favourite luxury’. In 1874 Fraser combined his role as editor of the Tobacco Plant with his passion for books when he announced the introduction of a new feature; a review column devoted to ‘re-prints of old and scarce books’ on the grounds that ‘All bookworms are not smokers, but nearly all book-antiquarians are’. In addition to historical and literary themes the Tobacco Plant devoted a considerable number of column inches and illustrations to comment, parody, and satire, on the activities of the Anti-Tobacco Society. It was reported that members of the Society were apt to refer to the Tobacco Plant as ‘the Liverpool thorn’.

From 1890-1894, the more famous and easier to find nowadays Cope’s Smoke Room Booklets were published, they printed 14 of them.

They'd often use grand titles which I absolutely love.

Stuff like:

The Plenipotent Key to Cope's Correct Card of the Peerless Pilgrimage to Saint Nicotine of the Holy Herb: Expounding in Prose and Verse All the Mysteries of Its Splendid Hieroglyphs

Which you can read online here:

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=h6oWAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
...and a couple more,
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89090695826;view=1up;seq=9

Cope's, The Universal Soother - read online
https://archive.org/stream/selectionsfromor00thomuoft#page/n1/mode/2up

Cope's Smoke Room Booklet - read online

" Briar pipes clenched between their teeth, the readers of Cope’s were encouraged to muse on contemporary art. The April 1876 edition carried a review of an issue of John Ruskin’s Fors Clavigera, the publication in which the bumptious critic famously described Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875) as ‘a pot of paint’ flung ‘in the public’s face’. Recherché Ruskiniana was balanced by translations of the tripped-out musings of two of the 19th century’s finest neuronauts: Baudelaire’s On Hasheesh appeared in October 1875, followed by Théophile Gautier’s On Opium a month later. In the singular world of Cope’s Tobacco Plant the drugs not only worked - they offered bohemian glamour to the provincial clerk or suburban gentleman of letters. "

This is a pretty good article in relation to the publications:

https://www.frieze.com/issue/article/lifes_a_drag/
In 1869, the Cope Brothers were granted a US patent for an ingenious tobacco press:

http://www.google.com/patents/US94568
Thomas and George had a few patents in the UK as well:

http://www.patentmaps.com/assignee/Cope_Brothers_vcxz_1.html
Now, on to Escudo.
This is a good read here:

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/kevins-blog/i-smoked-50-year-old-escudo-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah/#more-6831
I can't find the first registered trademark for Escudo, the earliest I can find is 1940, from the UK Intellectual Property office,

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK0000611408A

This bit of info is widely distributed across the web:

"Produced by the Cope brothers from 1870 to 1936, at which point they were bought by Gallaher."

, but I kind of doubt that it was made that early, they had a regular Navy Cut but a Navy de Luxe there was no trace of --- there is a chance that the regular Navy Cut was a silver-dollar spun cut VaPer, but unlikely as the later "de Luxe" would seem to indicate an improvement or enhancement, like the addition of Perique and the spun cut --- perhaps a reaction to the popular and well-advertised Three Nuns of the time? I have several old Smoke Room booklets from the 1880's and no mention is made, only an ad for Cope's Navy Cut as Supplied to the 'Queen's Navee' --- so I speculate that the de Luxe Escudo version came later...
1901 ad for navy Cut

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19011212&id=GuRjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zJEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3959,6587948
...this 60's Gallaher Escudo ad claims that it was "perfected" in 1912,

which just might be the correct origin date:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19641202&id=yJ8pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=L-YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6339,8165339
...regardless, Escudo Navy de Luxe is a stone-cold classic and its label art has remained nearly unchanged for a hundred-plus years.

I wish I had more resources to investigate all this stuff more thoroughly, but I'm lacking much vital material --- I need to visit The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama, in this case especially, because they hold the expansive library of the late great Tom Dunn, and he had a special completist streak for all things Cope, it'd be a dream come true to able able to go through it all.
Although further away from me, the George Arents Collection would be a world of wonders to visit as well...

http://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/arents-collection

 

[philobeddoe]

Thanks, that was really cool and informative.

 

[kashmir]

Spectacular misterlowercase. Simply spectacular. What I would give to live in the heyday of pipe smoking, to stroll into Jermyn St., with a few quid in my pocketsess, stepping over sawdusted floorboards, on over to the glass enclosed countertop, full of Comoys, BBBs, and Dunhills, and order a half pound of the house's best.

 

[pruss]

MLC that was wonderful.
Thanks so much for that post. I haven't even begun to cut my teeth on the links provided, but as usual, your scrounging, library diving and archive recover skills are over-delivering.
Cheers, mate.
-- Pat

 

[wilson]

Fascinating stuff -- thanks.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

MLC - these pieces you do never fail to astound me. It is contributions like this that really make this place stand out. Like Pat, I need to go back and work through all your links. Absolutely fantastic stuff.

 

[mikestanley]

This is a real treat to see. Thanks for posting!
Mike S.

 

[Perique]

Fantastic. I love threads like this. Thank you.

 

[mrjerke]

Excellent post MLC. Especially entertaining for me as I am a huge Escudo fan. What I wouldn't give to try some Cope's Escudo. Those old tins are magnificent looking.

 

[captainsousie]

Fantastic read and great information as usual. Thanks for sharing another piece of pipe history.

 

[stbruno70]

Ah, but the 'Pool was different in those days.
Many thanks for publishing this fine history.

 

[bluesmk]

Wonderful stuff! I thank you and applaude your efforts.

Dan

Gabrieli Pipes

 

[Dutch Pipe Smoker]

GREAT post!!! Thank you!!! :clap:

 

[misterlowercase]

Thanks guys!
I've still got the fever after 2 years of pipesmoking, like a kid inna candystore, lookin' around at all the history 'n stuff.
Yeah, I've had dreams about walking into Jermyn St. myself LOL but in my dreams I look a bit more dandified, not the rag-a-muffin I really resemble LOL I couldn't imagine seeing a wall fulla all those grand old pipes!
I just wish I was a better writer and had the abilities to undertake a broad history of all the old UK tobacco houses and do it inna readable manner, like Compton Mackenzie.
There are so many mysteries and they will most likely remain mysteries, part of me loves the magic of the mystery, but part of me is always wanting to scratch deeper into what was what.
Some things we'll never know, but at least we can celebrate our grand forefathers,

raise a glass and smoke a fine pipeful!

Salut!

 

[tbradsim1]

MLC Thank you for the Footwork, it is much appreciated, have a Merry Christmas. :clap:

 

[petes03]

I really enjoy looking at the old tins and tobacco! Thanks for posting!

 

[timely]

Wonderful post, thanks.!!!

 

[numbersix]

Thanks for posting ML and taking the time to research - excellent stuff!

 

[cigrmaster]

Thanks so much for all the great pics, when I can concentrate better I will read all that was written. Outstanding bit of research.

 

[bryanf]

Thanks for posting. I am thoroughly enjoying it!